A cancer researcher who faced debarment after being found guilty of falsifying data will now remain eligible for federal funding. Why? Find out...

In 2011, Scripps Research Institute cancer researcher Philippe Bois was banned
by the federal Office of Research Integrity (ORI) from federally funded
research projects for three years because of research misconduct. But now,
after spending two years appealing that decision, Bois has struck a new deal
with the ORI, one in which he remains eligible to participate in federally
funded research.

After an investigation led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Office of Research Integrity found that Bois falsified data in a figure from a 2005 paper published in the Journal of Cell Biology. Source: Scripps Research Institute/Journal of Cell Biology

Under the new agreement, the ORI affirms its findings of research misconduct
against Bois, but will no longer pursue debarment as punishment. Instead,
the administrative action merely requires additional supervision of Bois’
federally funded research by his research institute.

In return, Bois—who still denies the findings of research misconduct—has
agreed not to appeal the ORI’s most recent findings. The agreement was made
on March 14 and published in the Federal Register on April 18.

“I have been fighting for almost seven years to clear my name, and I am glad
to be able to put this matter behind me and to move on with my career in
science,” said Bois in a statement released by his attorney, Callan Stein of
the law firm of Donoghue Barrett & Singal in Boston.

“ORI’s decision to cease seeking debarment is a clear signal to me that its
‘findings’ would not have been sustained by a judge and that its proposed
punishment, a three-year debarment, was excessive and unreasonable,” Bois
continued.

In May 2011, the ORI charged Bois with research misconduct for work he had
done as a postdoc at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Specifically,
the ORI found that Bois “knowingly and intentionally” falsified data in
papers published in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB)
and in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB)
in 2005 (1-2). The JCB paper was retracted in 2007, and the MCB paper was
later corrected.

In response, Bois maintained his innocence, stating that the errors in those
publications were unintentional and requesting a hearing to contest the
ORI’s findings. But an administrative law judge from the ORI’s parent
agency—the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—denied Bois’
request. As a result, the HHS
banned Bois from participating in federally funded research projects in
June 2011.

In March 2012, Bois filed a federal lawsuit filed against the HHS, which
prompted a federal court judge to overturn
the HHS judge’s decision , effectively vacating the debarment and
granting Bois the right to contest his case before an HHS judge. That
decision was the first time an HHS judge’s ruling had been overturned since
the ORI overhauled the appeals process in 2005.

“I am confident that had ORI been forced to put its evidence to the test, its
‘findings’ would have been found wanting,” said Boise in his statement. “By
settling, ORI avoided having to turn over its evidence, including my
laboratory notebooks, which I would have used to disprove their allegations.”

Bois left the Scripps Research Institute in June 2011 and is currently the
chief science officer at AlgaStar, Inc., which develops bioreactors for
commercial-scale production of algae biomass for the biofuel and
pharmaceutical industries.